Vista screen goes dark

I need some help from you guys,

I've turned on my PC today and everything goes the usual way, however after
finishing to boot, load all startup programs, the vista screen becomes dark
(just as when UAC dialog appears, or when power cord is removed in a laptop).
Rebooting doesn't help, the same thing repeats.

I'm running Vista Ultimate, UAC has been disabled for months, it's not a
laptop but a desktop PC.

What could be the problem?

Let me guess, you mouse is still fully white (like it was before it goes
dark)?

I believe this definitely has something to do with the UAC, which is odd
because you have it switched off.

I'm having the exact same problem and cannot find the application causing
the error, I am on a Laptop with Vista Ultimate.

My first suspicion is iTunes!?

Any more help would be appreciated.

Problem solved (for me).

I recently did a clean install of Vista and had just put the latest version
of ATI's Catalyst Control Center on, i tried restoring the defaults (which i
believe can be found in the lower-right hand corner of the main windows, when
catalyst is set to Advanced View). it worked for me, hope it does for you.

Clean install of Vista also worked for me, although it's no real solution.

The problem never happened again.

I think I have the same problem. Here's what happens:

I log into my profile after a fresh boot. Everything looks fine and the
right brightness. Startup programs load but sometime within the first minute
or so the screen goes to about half its original brightness. It looks as if
there is a grey semi-transparent layer over everything (much like a UAC
prompt, without the prompt window) but the mouse is still bright-white as it
was before the screen darkened. When UAC is actually triggered, the screen
gets darker still as secure desktop prompts me, but goes back to the dull
greyish desktop when I take action to the UAC prompt.

None of this happens when I boot the computer in safe mode or before I log
into my profile, so I'm pretty sure it's a startup program that triggers this
behavior.

I was working well with my laptop (Vista Business x86 on an toshiba
a215-s4757) with no problems, yesterday I installed Host Adapters for Biztalk
2k6 and a recomended patch from Problems and Fixes, KB94xxx don't remeber the
exact kb, so i restart the computer and everything goes right, until the next
reboot when the symptoms appears as you describeb in your post...
I uninstall the patch, doesn't work...
I uninstall the Adapters, doesn't work...
I restore my computer to a previous state in restore and backup, doesnt
work!!!

I'll try to stop from start the Catalyst Control Center, well I see that in
october 11 in this year has been an update for the software and the drivers
from ATI...

Some more data I remeber that in the first atempt or reboot, the CCC.exe
doesn't exit well and Vista shoes you that the program doesn't close to the
kill signal...

Try using MSCONFIG to disable the startup items. Does the problem
disappear? If yes, enable them one by one, and reboot every time until
the problem resurfaces. Then you found the culprit.

HERE's THE FIX:

The problem seems to come from upgrading NVIDIA / ATI drivers.

To fix go into the nvidia control panel > display >adjust desktop colour settings, and up in the right hand top corner of the screen you'll find "restore defaults". Click that and then apply changes and all should be fixed.

As for ATI, you have to disable the Catalyst Control Center. (I use NVIDIA so i don't know how to exactly do that)

It's kind of strange that this should happen with such a modern OS like Vista (in my case 64-bit) but it apparently does. Hope this helps for all of you.

I've been having the same problem. I've determined that the problem
only occurs when my iPod is connected at boot up and iTunes loads when
logging in.

Solution: Disconnect iPod at boot up. No problems since.

After disabling all startup items and then re-enabling them one by one, I
found that the Catalyst Control Center (for my ATI Radeon Mobility card) was
the culprit. Strangely enough, I'm sure I installed the CCC after the
problem started happening, but apparentely removing it also removed what the
problem might have been in the first place.

It seems to be th Catalyst Control Center, I disabled it with msconfig and
everything goes rigth now...

So I applied the last update from ATI to my drivers and CCC and it said that
I already have the last version, by now we need two answers:

Why is happening this?? (From MS I searched and Skype triggers the same
problem )
Why is happening this?? (From ATI, it was working fine!! And what is trying
to to the CCC so the UAC dark screen is invoked??)

I'll try with the ATI support, the MS support, if someone have more info
please share it!!

[Danstag]

Hi I have recently purchased a dell studio 15 laptop, but there seems to be a problem with it. When you boot it up, the screen is completely dark and you can only just see things if you hold it up to the light. You cannot increase the brightness using Fn + Up arrow, or using the settings, (because i cant see them!) Any help please?

Has it ever worked? To verify it's a LCD Inverter issue just repeadly press
the lid close button on your laptop, your screen should blink back to life
(if only for a second) and possibly stay there for a while. It is only a
stop gap measure...

I had the same problem. Disabling the ATI Catalyst Control Center on startup fixed the problem. Worthy of note is the fact that this just started happening, and I haven't down any upgrades, new drivers or downloads.

On my Toshiba laptop you adjust that by using Fn and one of the
function keys. The other possibility is that the backlight is not
working for some reason. If you bought it new, complain to the
retailer or to Dell.

alt.sys.pc-clone.dell

If you can only see your screen with a flashlight then it seems that your
LCD Inverter is bad. It's about a $20.00 part but you should get Dell to
repair it.

[swampblack]

FIX FOR ATI:

Go to ATI Catalyst Control Center (in advance view), Options (top right corner) -> Preferences ->Restore Factory Default